Andy Larmand

The littleBits team recently released four expansion packs—two for the Code Kit and two for the STEAM Student Set. And, for this week’s Eduporium Experiment, we’re getting into the Code Kit Expansion Packs, the additional components they include, and the bonus projects students can make!

Keeping up with the latest releases from EdTech companies is important to us and we constantly work to make sure that we’re not missing anything important. At the same time, we’re researching each product ourselves to make sure that it will undoubtedly enhance instruction for all teachers and students that use it. Here are a few to check out!

One of the most exciting robots for teaching coding in elementary and middle school, the Root is now available in class packs! Educators can more easily bring Root into their classrooms thanks to the additions of classroom packs in sizes of 2, 6, 12, and 30! Root helps teachers cover key CS concepts, like touch interaction, drawing, loops, and more.

Formative assessments can be used to count as graded work or simply for teachers to gain a clearer understanding of student progress. They can be formal or informal and the best ones often lend ideas for how teachers can improve their instruction. This takes time, however, and that’s why Formative helps teachers in individualizing instruction.

We had a blast attending this year’s ISTE Conference in Philadelphia. It was a great couple of days and we truly enjoyed getting to catch up with a lot of our vendor and educator partners. The topics on everyone’s minds ranged from AI in education to creating more agency in professional learning with keynotes aimed at inspiring educators.

Though known for designing some of the most useful tools in robotics education in the Sphero SPRK and Sphero BOLT, this item from Sphero certainly has a different twist. We’re talking about the Sphero Specdrums—sets of music-making rings that kids (or adults) can place around their fingers and create music anytime and, more importantly, in any place.

There is a lot of hype, information, pause, and even a bit of action being taken when it comes to virtual reality in education. While it’s true that we do not yet know its complete impact on academic achievement, there are some things we do know about VR’s potential in the classroom. Here are some beliefs about VR and reasons

The recipient of our $500 EdTech grant for the month of June is Jean Daley, a librarian from the Erving Public Library in Erving, MA! Jean is committed to helping the kids in her community learn more about and with technology and will now be able to introduce them to coding and learning in new ways!

Summer is here, so if you’re looking to step up your skills while you recharge, you might want to try one of these professional development courses. On our store, we now offer PD from littleBits, Wonder Workshop, and Sphero, so teachers can become masters of using these STEAM tools to create exciting educational experiences for students.

With ISTE 2019 going on this week, we thought we’d take a closer look at one of today’s most popular classroom tools in Seesaw. Seesaw is essentially an application that allows classroom teachers to gain greater insights and organization when it comes to their students’ progress. It’s also free and a great way for students to demonstrate their learning.